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London afternoon: BHP dips on Potash approach
Wed, 08 Feb, 2012
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London afternoon: BHP dips on Potash approach
Tue, 17 Aug 2010, 13:21:00
Leading shares gave away more of their early gains over the lunchtime session, despite expectations of a firm start on Wall Street. The focus is on the mining sector where <b>Lonmin, Vedanta, Xstrata, Kazakhmys, Xstrata </b>and <b>Antofagasta </b>rack up the biggest gains. <b>BHP Billiton</b>, however, slips back after it confirmed it had made a $38bn takeover approach for Canada's Potash Corporation, the world's largest producer of fertiliser. Potash has rejected the approach, describing it as "opportunistic". Acquisitive insurer <b>Resolution</b> posted a £203m first half profit after "additional financial discipline" squeezed £211m out of Friends Provident, snapped up last year for £1.9bn. Resolution lost £7m a year ago. The firm, which also bought AXA's UK life assurance business in June for £2.75bn, said UK IFRS operating profit jumped from £33m to £128m, helped by a £53m one-off gain. It's still on the lookout for more life company acquisitions and hopes to have added another business to its portfolio by the middle of next year. Rivals <b>Prudential</b> and <b>Old Mutual</b>, which recently published bumper results of their own, and <b>Aviva</b>, whose general insurance businesses in the UK, Ireland and Canada are being targeted by RSA, are both ahead. There are reports in this morning's FT that leading Aviva shareholders are to press the UK insurer to reconsider its dismissal of a £5bn ($7.8bn) offer from RSA. The sell off of assets at part-nationalised lender <b>Royal Bank of Scotland</b> continues, with the bank selling a €1.4bn portfolio of loans to a fund managed by <b>Intermediate Capital Group</b>, the FTSE 250 listed investment firm and fund manager. <b>Diageo</b>, which owns some of the best known drinks brands you'll see behind the bar, is lower after broker Cazenove issued a downbeat note on the Guinness brewer. Cazenove has pared its price target for Diageo to 1050p from 1100p. North Sea oil firm <b>EnQuest</b> is the best performing FTSE 250 stock after it reported a surge in half-year profit, increased its full year production guidance and said it looks forward to continuing growth. Water company <b>Pennon</b> is going well. It has traded as expected since the year end in March and users in the South West will be pleased to know the water supplier thinks a hose pipe ban is "highly unlikely" despite the dry summer. Its waste management business Viridor continues to perform well in weak UK economic conditions and remains confident of growing full year profit. Fund manager <b>Gartmore</b> declared itself satisfied with a 146% improvement in interim earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, though net sales were below expectations as the company counted the cost of the loss of one of its star fund managers. Assets under management at the end of June were down to £19.9bn from £22.2bn, but were up from £17.4bn a year earlier. The first half of 2010 saw venerable investment trust <B>Witan</b> achieve a negative net asset value (NAV) total return of -1.9%, though it outperformed its benchmark comparison. Eleven out of 13 of the company's manager mandates outperformed their respective benchmarks during the period. EDF Energy Networks has extended the support services contract of <B>Carillion</B> in a deal worth £40m a year to the construction services company. Oil and gas explorer <B>Melrose Resources</B> reported a 30% rise in half yearly pre-tax profit, helped by higher oil prices , and expects to reveal increased production from its Bulgarian gas fields. Maintenance and building services group <B>Rok</B> slashed its dividend after a sharp fall in profits in a year that was marred by economic weakness, bad weather and accounting failings in one of its businesses. Rok's sector peer, social housing group <b>Mears</b>, calmed some nerves about its prospects with an upbeat trading update. Adjusted interim profit before tax was £13.2m, up 42% on a year ago. Shares in <b>Vitesse Media</b> fell despite the publisher of magazines for investors reporting a 3.5% rise in like-for-like sales and saying it is looking forward with confidence to the second half of the year. Shareholders in 'e-learning' software group <b>ILX</b> cheered a £420,000 contract win to provide training and implementation consulting for a government agency in an unnamed Middle Eastern country.
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